IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/poango/v8y2020i4p496-508.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Best in Covid: Populists in the Time of Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Lenka Buštíková

    (School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University, USA)

  • Pavol Baboš

    (Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia)

Abstract

How do populists govern in crisis? We address this question by analyzing the actions of technocratic populists in power during the first wave of the novel coronavirus crisis in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We identify three features of the populist pandemic response. First, populists bypassed established, institutionalized channels of crisis response. Second, they engaged in erratic yet responsive policy making. These two features are ubiquitous to populism. The third feature, specific to technocratic populism, is the politicization of expertise in order to gain legitimacy. Technocratic populists in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia weaponized medical expertise for political purposes.

Suggested Citation

  • Lenka Buštíková & Pavol Baboš, 2020. "Best in Covid: Populists in the Time of Pandemic," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 496-508.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v:8:y:2020:i:4:p:496-508
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/3424
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antonino Castaldo & Luca Verzichelli, 2020. "Technocratic Populism in Italy after Berlusconi: The Trendsetter and his Disciples," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 485-495.
    2. David Aprasidze & David S. Siroky, 2020. "Technocratic Populism in Hybrid Regimes: Georgia on My Mind and in My Pocket," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 580-589.
    3. Caramani, Daniele, 2017. "Will vs. Reason: The Populist and Technocratic Forms of Political Representation and Their Critique to Party Government," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 111(1), pages 54-67, February.
    4. Sean Kates & Joshua A. Tucker, 2019. "We Never Change, Do We? Economic Anxiety and Far‐Right Identification in a Postcrisis Europe," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 100(2), pages 494-523, April.
    5. Lenka Bustikova & Petra Guasti, 2017. "The Illiberal Turn or Swerve in Central Europe?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 166-176.
    6. Michel Perottino & Petra Guasti, 2020. "Technocratic Populism à la Française? The Roots and Mechanisms of Emmanuel Macron’s Success," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 545-555.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Petra Guasti & Lenka Buštíková, 2020. "A Marriage of Convenience: Responsive Populists and Responsible Experts," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 468-472.
    2. Martina Novotná & Alena Macková & Karolína Bieliková & Patrícia Rossini, 2023. "Barriers to Participation in Polarized Online Discussions About Covid-19 and the Russo-Ukrainian War," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(3), pages 274-284.
    3. Petra Guasti, 2020. "Populism in Power and Democracy: Democratic Decay and Resilience in the Czech Republic (2013–2020)," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 473-484.
    4. Susan Baker & Matthew J. Quinn, 2022. "Populism, Austerity and Governance for Sustainable Development in Troubled Times: Introduction to Special Issue," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-14, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Petra Guasti, 2020. "Populism in Power and Democracy: Democratic Decay and Resilience in the Czech Republic (2013–2020)," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 473-484.
    2. Petra Guasti & Lenka Buštíková, 2020. "A Marriage of Convenience: Responsive Populists and Responsible Experts," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 468-472.
    3. Maria Snegovaya, 2020. "Different Strokes for Different Folks: Who Votes for Technocratic Parties?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 556-567.
    4. Fernando Filgueiras & Pedro Palotti & Graziella G. Testa, 2023. "Complexing Governance Styles: Connecting Politics and Policy in Governance Theories," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, March.
    5. Elena Semenova, 2020. "Expert Ministers in New Democracies: Delegation, Communist Legacies, or Technocratic Populism?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 590-602.
    6. Geschwind, Stephan & Roesel, Felix, 2022. "Taxation under direct democracy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 536-554.
    7. Thomas Borén & Patrycja Grzyś & Craig Young, 2021. "Spatializing authoritarian neoliberalism by way of cultural politics: City, nation and the European Union in Gdańsk’s politics of cultural policy formation," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(6), pages 1211-1230, September.
    8. José Joaquín Brunner, 2018. "Sobre las contradicciones culturales del liberalismo y sus malestares," Estudios Públicos, Centro de Estudios Públicos, vol. 0(150), pages 161-233.
    9. Marion Reiser & Jörg Hebenstreit, 2020. "Populism versus Technocracy? Populist Responses to the Technocratic Nature of the EU," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 568-579.
    10. Szabo, John & Fabok, Marton, 2020. "Infrastructures and state-building: Comparing the energy politics of the European Commission with the governments of Hungary and Poland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    11. Rodrigo Barrenechea & Eduardo Dargent, 2020. "Populists and Technocrats in Latin America: Conflict, Cohabitation, and Cooperation," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 509-519.
    12. Thomas König & Bernd Luig, 2017. "The impact of EU decision-making on national parties’ attitudes towards European integration," European Union Politics, , vol. 18(3), pages 362-381, September.
    13. Federico M. Ferrara & Donato Masciandaro & Manuela Moschella & Davide Romelli, 2023. "What do politicians think of technocratic institutions? Experimental Evidence on the European Central Bank," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 23201, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    14. Ľubomír Zvada, 2022. "On Gender and Illiberalism: Lessons From Slovak Parliamentary Debates," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(4), pages 108-120.
    15. Vladimír Naxera & Petr Krčál, 2020. "“How to Sustain National Security”: A Case Study of the Celebrations of the Slovak National Uprising as a Securitization Platform," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-13, October.
    16. Vlastimil Havlík & Alena Kluknavská, 2022. "The Populist Vs Anti‐Populist Divide in the Time of Pandemic: The 2021 Czech National Election and its Consequences for European Politics," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(S1), pages 76-87, September.
    17. Ernesto Ganuza & Joan Font, 2020. "Experts in Government: What for? Ambiguities in Public Opinion Towards Technocracy," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 520-532.
    18. Hyunwoo Kim, 2023. "Monetary technocracy and democratic accountability: how central bank independence conditions economic voting," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 939-964, May.
    19. Emiliana De Blasio & Lorenzo Viviani, 2020. "Platform Party between Digital Activism and Hyper-Leadership: The Reshaping of the Public Sphere," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 16-27.
    20. Lars Rensmann & Sarah L. de Lange & Stefan Couperus, 2017. "Editorial to the Issue on Populism and the Remaking of (Il)Liberal Democracy in Europe," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 106-111.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v:8:y:2020:i:4:p:496-508. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.